


cheerfulest elephantangelchild should sit

by siojo



Series: Marco's Daycare (and side stories) [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daycare, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash, Vacation, arts and crafts, zoo trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 14:23:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19133851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Trying to doze after the first of several alarms only to wake up to his phone is not the way that Ace planned on starting his morning. Not after a month of this.





	cheerfulest elephantangelchild should sit

**Author's Note:**

> title from the ee cummings poem of the same name!

Ace groans as his alarm blares, trying to shift away from the knee digging into his stomach, slapping his hand against the bedside table to shut it up before he had to deal with Luffy whining about being woken up too. He gives up after a minute, tugging on the power cord to unplug it instead, burying his face into his pillow with a sigh. There were two more alarms on his phone, he could get another thirty minutes.

He doesn’t even close his eyes before his phone starts to ring, shrill and loud, as he scrambles to shut it up. The number on the screen is almost enough for Ace to turn it off, before he answers it reluctantly.

“‘Lo?”

“You sound like you’re happy to hear from me,” Kureha states and Ace can hear her chair creaking as she leans back in it, the intercom calling for someone in the distance. “Though, you did answer. Dr. Water hung up on me three times before she decided to answer.”

“It’s early and I want to sleep,” Ace yawns, pushing himself up enough to catch sight of the time bouncing across his television screen. “You should know, I have my resignation in my email drafts and am willing to send it in if you’re calling me in for another emergency.”

Kureha barks a laugh, “You and half of the staff here, kid. But that’s not why I’m calling, you’re on vacation for the next two weeks. I’ve harassed people enough to make them pull in more staff and you, Dr. Water, and Dr. Trafalgar are the first three that get to reap the benefits.”

“Vacation?”

“Two whole weeks, kid. Get some sleep, I’ve sent two emails and a text so that you have physical evidence. You best enjoy it.”

Ace hums, scrubbing his eyes and collapsing back onto the bed, “If this turns out to be a dream, I will absolutely accept being fired.”

“You do that. I have to go, there’s four more people I have to call to give them the good news. Have a good time.”

Her parting words merge together as Ace blinks slowly up at his ceiling, his eyes barely opening back before he forces himself onto his side with a groan, blinking to adjust to the brightness of his phone screen to find his alarms and turn them off. Ace pushed his phone back onto the table and closed his eyes as they started to burn.

He had meant to fall back asleep for at least a few more hours, enough to finally feel like he’s human again, but when he finally looks at the time, almost an hour later, and Luffy’s knee finds a spot in his side, Ace gets up. Stumbling over the pile of clothes that he should probably put in the washer and into the kitchen to punch on the coffee maker as he sends a text to his mom, rolling his eyes when she calls him.

“You could just text me, mom.”

“I can do a lot of things,” Rouge agrees brightly, something chirping behind her. “What are you doing up this early, honey? Did you get another emergency call?”

“Got time off,” Ace yawns, blinking slowly as the coffee starts to fill his cup. “Two whole weeks.”

“That’s a start. You were not getting enough sleep and I’m sure that any surgery that you scrubbed in on would have been a liability about to happen,” Rouge pauses, responding to someone else talking to her. “But that doesn’t explain why you called.”

“If I asked really, really nicely, can I borrow your help cleaning the apartment? I don’t remember the last time that I saw my bedroom floor and I know that something has gone back in the fridge in the last few weeks.”

Rouge laughs, “I’ll call a cleaning service, Ace. You’re in no shape to clean up right now and I’m sure that Luffy’s going to start asking some very pointed questions about the zoo as soon as he realizes that you’re home still.”

“I forgot about the zoo,” Ace groans, taking his cup and taking a long pull.

“And we both know that you’re far too nice to lie to Luffy and come home for a nap.”

Ace snorts, “I didn’t ask for you to say such things about me, mom. Isn’t that what dad did when i was ten?”

“He did, you were so upset that you refused to call him dad and referred to him only as “that man”. Roger thought you were going to replace him with Rayleigh.”

“Uncle Rayleigh never pretended to go to work and left me at daycare after promising we would do something fun,” Ace states, starting up the machine for another cup of coffee. “Will you be able to meet the cleaning company here?”

Rouge hums thoughtfully, “I can. Are you going to spend the day at the zoo with Luffy?”

“I had promised,” Ace agrees, pushing his hair back from his face and pulling a face at the feeling of it. “After I get us both showered. And breakfast.”

“You’re going to cook?”

“I feel like you’re overestimating my ability mother. I’m going to take Luffy to the little brunch place near by the Shanks likes and then tell him that it’s time for daycare so that when we go to the zoo, it’s a surprise.”

“You break your mother’s heart,” Rouge sighs dramatically. “I’m fine, Roger, I’m teasing Ace.”

Ace rolls his eyes, sipping his new cup of coffee and gagging as he realizes he forgot sugar, “I have to go see if I have anything clean. Thanks again, mom.”

“You’re welcome. I hope you get some sleep tonight. And make sure to let the daycare know that Luffy won’t be in today.”

“Yes mother.”

“Good, now I have to push your father into the pool because he is trying to teach the rescue crows how to curse. Have a good day.”

Ace laughs, ignoring how she hangs up on him with a muffled shout for his father to get away from the birds before she gets the mustache trimmer and cuts his off, setting his phone down on the counter as he leans against it, staring blankly out the window as the sun starts to rise. He still has a handful of things that he needs to accomplish before taking Luffy to the zoo like he had promised. But he had a few more minutes before he had to start calling people.

* * *

“Newgate Daycare Center, Marco speaking,” Marco answers the phone, tapping his pen against the list of activities that he had enough parts for all of the children in his class, frowning. “How can I assist you?”

“Is that a script?” Ace asks easily, yawning. “Sorry.”

“It’s not really a script, but it’s always easier to know how I’m going to answer a call. Why are you calling so early Dr. Portgas?”

“Pretty sure I’ve told you to call me Ace and if I haven’t, you should anyway, Marco. Luffy won’t be coming in today, I’ve been given two weeks off by an old witch. I don’t know if Dr. Water or Dr. Trafalgar are going to call you or sleep all day with their children.”

Marco laughs, “They might be the voicemail I got this morning. Something about not coming in, sleeping, and then hung up. I was going to check the number after finishing the plan for today.”

“That sounds like Dr. Water,” Ace laughs. “Our boss has been calling everyone with time off and apparently she hung up on her a couple times. But I’m sorry for interrupting your morning.”

“It’s fine, Ace. I’m glad that you’ve got time off, you looked like you were about to collapse. Does this mean you’re headed to the zoo?”

Ace laughs, “Only after I trick Luffy into thinking it’s daycare. Hopefully he’s going to be so excited he won’t be mad at me,” he pauses and Marco can hear something clatter on a table top. “I have to go, but have a good day.”

“You too. Thank you for letting me know what was going on.”

“No problem.”

Marco places the phone back into the cradle, smiling to himself as he pulls out some of the plans that he had been forced to set aside when the hospital’s understaffing had become seriously apparent, checking the number of supplies against the people who would be absent.

Robin and Kidd both missed this day every week and with Luffy and Law both out, that meant he had just enough supplies to let the kids make their own swords. Which would go well with the story that he had planned out for just before naptime. One that Zoro’s father had recommended about a cursed sword that wasn’t too gory or adult for children.

“You want me to make what,” Thatch demands, frowning at Marco from the doorway as the first of the children started to trickle into the building.

“Swords,” Marco answers. “I sent you the link. It’s just fruit and pretzels, simple. Even if you’re going to have to make a lot.”

“Pretzels with half a grape skewered on them.”

“Pirate swords. It’s sword day.”

Thatch sighs, “I hate you. I’m replacing you with someone who actually cares about his siblings. Baby carrots with celery crossguards it is. Pretzels and grapes aren’t substantial enough. Maybe rounds of something to make up shields. I’ll see if any of your kids are allergic to jello. Jinbe is having jello fish at snack time and I’ll have plenty left over.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood or you would get the usual,” Thatch states waving as he heads back to the kitchen, the first of Marco’s class stumbling in the door and falling face first into the pile of stuffed animals.

“He did not want to wake up,” Mihawk states, placing Zoro’s bag into the cubby with his name on it. “Apparently he was dreaming about beating me at sword fighting and if he woke up, he would lose.”

“Then I’m sure he’ll be happy to wake up to find that today is going to be all about swords,” Marco says easily, waving to Nami and Vivi as they rush through the door to jump on Zoro. “I think he’s lost.”

Bell-mere sighs, “Sorry about that, Hawk-guy. The girls spent the night at Vivi’s place and apparently got into the sugar before I picked them up.”

“Please stop calling me that,” Mihawk states, frowning at Bell-mere. “I have been unable to stop Shanks from calling me such, but I will not have the name passed to all of his friends.”

“Whatever you say,” Bell-mere smirks. “Hawk-guy.”

Marco moves away before Mihawk can respond, spotting Kidd and his mother entering the classroom.

“Mrs. Kidd, I thought you weren’t coming in today?”

“I had an emergency meeting. It’s only one extra day, it shouldn’t be an issue, there’s other students who show up unexpectedly.”

“Those children are enrolled in the program to cover the full week. Which means that we are always paid to cover for them. You have enrolled in our work week program with specified days off. Unless you’ve cleared this with the director?”

Mrs. Kidd waves him off, “It’s one day.”

“And the rules state that this is enough to breach the contract we have and remove Eustass from this daycare,” Marco smiles blankly, ignoring the outrage on her face. “The office and the director should be open, should you like to discuss this with him.”

“Fine, we’ll take this up with the director.”

Bell-mere whistles as Kidd’s mother drags him out the room, ranting loud enough to carry, “Damn, I would have told her where to shove her bull.”

“Kidd’s mother is already on thin ice,” Marco sighs, almost regretting that Ace won’t be coming in, because he might not linger for long, but he always had something to say that helped improve Marco’s mood after these types of confrontations. “Please don’t curse in my class.”

“Fine, fine. Girls, I’m leaving, behave.”

Nami shrieks, racing across the room and throwing herself into her mother’s lap, “Bye mom! I’ll see you this afternoon!”

“Don’t drive Mr. Marco mad.”

“Mr. Marco is already mad,” Killer mutters, tripping over his shoelaces, untied because he didn’t know how but his parents thought velcro gave the wrong look. “Mr. Thatch says so.”

Marco counts to ten, taking a deep breath in through his nose as the rest of the children start to slip in, but Kidd doesn’t. He hums, watching them milling around before clapping his hands and smiling, “How about we talk about what today is?”

Vivi bounces on her toes, eyes wide, “A craft day?”

“That’s right, craft day,” Marco winces when the kids shout, keeping his smile steady. “If you all sit down, we’ll get started.”

* * *

Ace watches Luffy closely as he pulls into the zoo’s parking lot, making sure that he was distracted by the game on the phone to realize that it had taken too long to get to daycare, only looking up when Ace had finally parked.

“Did we get lost?” Luffy demands, frowning at the parking lot as he unbuckles and stands on his booster seat. “This isn’t daycare.”

“Are you sure?” Ace asks, hiding a grin as he unbuckles from his seat and unlocks the doors. Not that it matters when Luffy is climbing over the center console and out of Ace’s door on his heels. “You don’t think this is daycare?”

“No! It’s too big!”

“Well, I guess we better find someone to ask where we are,” Ace closes his door, hitting the key fob to make sure it locked. “Here, I think that the sidewalk goes this way. Maybe there’s someone that way.”

“Adventure!” Luffy shouts, dragging Ace down the path by his hand, stopping short when the ticket booth appeared around the last corner.

“Lu?”

“This is the zoo.”

Ace grins, “Dr. Kureha called this morning and said I could have two whole weeks without work. I hope you don’t mind the surprise.”

Luffy sniffs, rubbing his eyes before he throws himself at Ace, hugging him around the waist tightly, “Thank you, Ace!”

“You’re welcome, Luffy,” Ace brushes his hair back softly, ignore the hiccups and the dampness pressed into shirt. “I’m glad that you’re happy. Think we can find us some monkeys?”

“Uh-huh,” Luffy scrubs his face on his sleeve, smiling brightly. “Come on Ace, we gotta find the monkeys!”


End file.
